In the News (from The Guardian): “News is toxic to your body. It constantly triggers the limbic system. Panicky stories spur the release of cascades of glucocorticoid (cortisol). This deregulates your immune system and inhibits the release of growth hormones. In other words, your body finds itself in a state of chronic stress. High glucocorticoid levels cause impaired digestion, lack of growth (cell, hair, bone), nervousness and susceptibility to infections. The other potential side-effects include fear, aggression, tunnel-vision and desensitisation.

“News works like a drug. As stories develop, we want to know how they continue. With hundreds of arbitrary storylines in our heads, this craving is increasingly compelling and hard to ignore. Scientists used to think that the dense connections formed among the 100 billion neurons inside our skulls were largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. Today we know that this is not the case. Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones. The more news we consume, the more we exercise the neural circuits devoted to skimming and multitasking while ignoring those used for reading deeply and thinking with profound focus. Most news consumers – even if they used to be avid book readers – have lost the ability to absorb lengthy articles or books. After four, five pages they get tired, their concentration vanishes, they become restless. It’s not because they got older or their schedules became more onerous. It’s because the physical structure of their brains has changed.

“Society needs journalism – but in a different way. Investigative journalism is always relevant. We need reporting that polices our institutions and uncovers truth. But important findings don’t have to arrive in the form of news. Long journal articles and in-depth books are good, too.”

My Comment: The media cannot be and has never been objective because, in principal, there is no objectivity in nature. The media perform the orders of those who pay them. The media is needed to ensure that people have contact with the entire world and reveal its emptiness, finiteness, and limitation sooner—it is necessary for the subsequent correction.[105704]

In the News (from FARS News Agency): “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the human society is moving towards global unity despite the efforts made by the corrupt powers to create a rift among them. …

“‘Today the human society is moving towards unity [emphasis mine], under such conditions that the entire mankind is fed up with the status quo and is in pursuit of justice, monotheism, and purity,’ the Iranian president said.

“He noted that the world’s great nations will stand up against the corrupt powers in a solid and united manner in a bid to establish monotheism [emphasis mine] and justice around the globe.

“President Ahmadinejad has on many occasions underlined the necessity for the establishment of a new world order, saying that the current unjust order has failed to resolve global problems and, thus, reached its end.”

My Comment:As we can see, the discovery of the inexorable trend of nature becomes manifested more, and many leaders and the elite of the world begin to understand where the world is heading. Kabbalah reveals both the stages of its movement as well as how to overcome these stages of growth easily and quickly—with the method of integral education. Studying the nature of what is happening to us and ourselves, we gain knowledge and determine the force of our development and thus can facilitate this instead of resisting this.[105657]

Question: Teenagers who are involved in integral education act like adults and at the same time like children. This borderline is subtle. What is the way to form interaction with them if this switching is constantly taking place?

Answer:This depends on a person. Of course, there is a difference in the way boys and girls mature. We know that girls develop and mature faster than boys, therefore age isn’t really measured by the number of years. However, there are boys who become responsible and mature at an early age. And there are those who are spoiled, who wish to remain children, don’t want to take on responsibility, and always take the sidelines when it comes to dealing with problems. However, in an integral circle this difference gradually disappears.

Remark: It is very difficult for me and for many other specialists to interact with them because they give two reactions simultaneously: that of an adult and that of a child.

Answer:This is what they are. Try to enter their state, try to speak like them (this is a natural approach), be together with them, and justify them fully. Then you’ll suddenly begin to see the world through their eyes, feel it through their perception, and agree with them. You’ll have to climb out of this young age.

Question: I’ve always considered myself to be a progressive person. Now I feel like a retrograde in this matter. How can one remain internally young and free?

Answer:Sit together with them at a seminar, talk and think like they do. Try to play this character. Then you’ll suddenly feel young and understand that this is how it should be. You’ll absorb their worldview because otherwise, you won’t be able to do anything.

Also, you can give them more freedom and let them do what they feel is necessary, with the exception of certain framework that they shouldn’t step outside of in order to prevent the undesirable: promiscuous sexual relations, drugs, and so on.[105112]From a Talk on Integral Upbringing, 4/2/2013

Question: Today, modern medicine is not based on compliance with nature. Alternative medicine, such as Chinese medicine or homeopathy, is based on observing nature, on how to create balance between man and nature. But alternative methods treat only narrowly defined diseases.

Answer: Balance will cure everything. We must either give it a push, or give the body a sense of loss of balance, and it will straighten itself out. After all, our body is under such an influence of polluted environments and poisons, which affect us, that it does not sense an imbalance within itself and between itself and nature.

If you put a person who is used to normal ecological environment into our conditions, he will go crazy because of the noise, smells, and harmful effects of the environment. Additionally, if you give him our food, he will be taken to the intensive care unit. But we exist normally; this imbalance in us is constantly compensated.

Therefore, all the natural methods of treatment are very hard to apply, they barely work. For this, it is necessary to be in the appropriate environment.[105695]From KabTV’s “The Medicine of the Future” 4/7/13

Question: How can we reach the innermost point from which we can rise above the ego? What is that point?

Answer: This point is my “Self.” What can be more precious to me in all of reality than my “Self”? We are still not aware of how extreme our selfishness, the egoistic tyranny, is. Nothing can compare to it.

Our mistake is that we usually compare and measure everything according to the physical, beastly, corporeal concepts of life and death. This drastically lowers our “expectations,” and often under the pressure of troubles a person is even ready to give up life, which seems worthless to him compared to his suffering. Many are ready to put an end to their lives because of the wrong standard, because of a “beastly” perspective on life.…

But if you measure your life with respect to eternity and wholeness, you cannot give it up. You cannot give it up since your true “Self” is hiding here, the most precious thing that you have, although you have not yet revealed it and have not compared it with the real standard, with eternal life, with the eternity and the power of the real creation and not with the corporeal life on the level of our world.

Question: Do I need a strong and secure environment into which I can “dive in” in order to give up my egoistic self?

Answer: We must understand that generally speaking, only the Light that comes from Above can help us here. In the meantime, we have not actually realized this and live in a lie, measuring everything with respect to corporeal life. When we begin to measure everything according to the spiritual standard, we will discover terrible depths, in which self-abnegation is utterly impossible.

Then you will see that the intervention of the upper force that is above you is necessary. You will finally understand that there is room for the upper authority.You will have such sensation for the first time, and this is already a new step along the way.[105528]From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: He believes that this world is not like an open store without an owner, but that there is an owner present, a shopkeeper, who stands in his store and demands of each customer the right price for the merchandise he is taking from the store…

Such a person is regarded as one who wishes to borrow. Thus, even before he stretches his hand to take from this world, which is the store, he takes it as a loan, to pay its price.

Question: What is this loan?

Answer: The loan is a collection of forces, thoughts, and actions, correctly arranged in order to bestow. This “individual order” is exactly what you have to do in your state. You are given all that is required, a complete package deal.

However, the trouble is that you already have left this state. You already want to “debit,” to steal part of this loan. Well, this happens in general. Some organization demands a budget for lofty purposes, and afterward they do business “on the side” instead.

I don’t accuse anyone; we only have to draw a conclusion from this. This is how a person is built. This is our nature, and this happens everywhere in the world, in every nation. It happens even when someone speaks enthusiastically, he’s sure that he is truly and simply handling the means at his disposal. However, a different desire comes along with a different usage. It is natural that when a person receives millions, his desires heat up.

Generally, theft and corruption are natural things; they always have existed. In the past, leaders didn’t need to take anyone into account and did what they wanted, but today some things emerge on the surface. This is even though we still don’t understand where to find the correction.

The problem is only a lack of an environment that will support and hold you in the right state. If the environment were strong enough, you would correctly use a loan, which comes in response to a request that has been approved. You are not guilty; you simply are not connected to the right environment, which would be the one thing that would maintain the right approach for you.

Therefore, it is first necessary to build the right environment. Without this, there is no chance. This is so even if a person submits a truly justified request and receives the means correctly. A number of years go by, and they discover that he has accounts abroad or secret real estate investments or something else. And we ourselves are to blame. We didn’t investigate all the conditions, not at the time the loan was approved, but at the time it was received.

On the other hand, in spirituality, there are no mistakes like these. If you don’t prepare the environment, then your request simply is not accepted. You can knock on the door all you want, but no one will open it for you.

Question: Which is to say, without friends who are guarantors for me, I cannot receive any loan?

Answer: Right, this is because you intend to realize it from the start with unsuitable conditions.

Question: Which is to say, my request for receiving a loan needs to pass through the group?

Answer: Yes. I want to help the friends so much, to unite them, to see them as one body that I must do something, and then, with this, I raise pain through the group. This is not talking merely about a “transition,” rather it is about absolute despair that rips me apart. I am like a mother who suffers because she cannot feed her children. I turn for help with this and then receive the loan.

However, this is not a loan on our terms. The Creator wants to help the friends himself. Therefore, this is speaking here about the Torah. I receive the Light that Reforms and the Light that fills the Kelim. I receive this on condition that I truly have a desire, an urge to bestow. I’m boiling up, but I don’t know what to do. And then everything will be arranged for me: I will be given the understanding, the Kelim, the means, and all that is required.

Question: So, how do I ask ? To whom do I turn?

Answer: This is my internal appeal. Not everyone is prepared to express the burning, inner love. Sometimes, it is the opposite. From the outside, it seems that it is contempt.

Love doesn’t burst out like lava from a volcano. It is the opposite. In accord with the spiritual source, it always comes with limitation, concealment, with covers and with modesty. Don’t expect hugs and kisses from the friends. The love burns within, and outside of us is a screen and the Reflected Light, which is to say, something completely opposite. After all, the screen with the Reflected Light are built above the egoistic desire, dark and gloomy to death. Therefore, love always is covered with modesty. The screen itself is concealment.

So, we return to the loan from the Creator. I receive the power to bestow to the group from Him. I help the friends, unite them so that they will join together wholeheartedly, and I feel that the Creator becomes revealed in the connection between them, with a laughing, happy face.

This is all the realization of the action. His powers act on me inside and out. By constructing the vessel, I see these forces when He is revealed. So, what did I do by myself? In sum, I prepared a place for this revelation.[105545]From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/13, “The Peace”

Question: Why does it say that the picture of this world is fictitious and not real?

Answer: The picture of the world that appears before us is fictitious and not real because the Creator is always good and benevolent to us. Eventually, the created being will reveal the Creator’s love in everything. But in the meantime, having no choice, He must hasten us to develop and even threaten, pressure, and confuse us.

We do the same thing with children since otherwise, they will not develop. This is why the Creator treats us in the same way. The problem is that we don’t see who is taking care of us and we don’t know the plan of creation.

A baby also doesn’t understand what is going on, either. He doesn’t realize that his parents are giving him exercises; for him, it is simply a game. It is only when his mother or father begin to pressure him does he pay attention to them and begin to shout that Mommy is bad!

I never have heard a child shouting that Mom is good. He takes this for granted since it is obvious that she must serve him. But when she suddenly does something against his will, he resents it.

So, we must understand that the only way to advance is by exercises that are not very pleasant and will only get more complicated. Everything depends on our preparation and on our ability to recognize them. In fact, we are given a certain exercise every moment, and we can be constantly in the process of clarification. However, a person doesn’t make the right effort, and so the Creator’s stimuli accumulate and are felt eventually as a hard blow.

It is as if you have complaints about someone, but restrain yourself and suffer. You accumulate anger and frustration inside of you, instead of easily and immediately clarifying things the moment they come up. Eventually, however, you lose patience and explode, and this happens suddenly and unexpectedly and those around you don’t understand what is going on.

So, it is better not to come to such an outburst, but to be aware of what is going on all the time. This is possible only through mutual guarantee when everyone thinks about this and deals with it, when everyone wants to support one another. In fact, we are building the one, general vessel of the soul. A person has nothing that is private in spirituality.

The solution is only in connection, and it has to do with what I think about the friends and about the connection between us. This is the only thing we have to correct since this is how our soul is built.[104963]From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Writings of Rabash, Volume 2, “What is the Prohibition to Greet Another Before Greeting the Creator, in the Work”: The most difficult part in the work is the order of the work that consists of two things that contradict one another, and it is hard to understand how they can both be true, when we attribute the work to the Creator, believing that the Creator accepts our work no matter how we see it.

This means that it doesn’t matter whether a person works for the greatness of reason and understanding, whether a person attributes the work to the Creator, which means that he works with the intention of in order to bestow; the Creator accepts his work willingly. This means that a person has to follow the right line that is considered wholeness, to pray to the Creator, and to thank Him, even if he doesn’t find any desire for spirituality in him. Otherwise, how can he thank the Creator and say that the Creator hears what he says to Him?

If he can thank the Creator, he feels joy and from “Lo Lishma (not for Her sake) he arrives at Lishma (for Her sake),” and thus he rises from his state of wholeness. Since the gratitude that he feels towards the Creator makes a person feel that he is whole, and to the extent the joy he feels he continues, he is able to rise to the next level.

The state itself doesn’t change, it is constant. Only a person’s attitude towards it changes, his perception of it, and it happens to the extent that he clarifies and correctly interprets this state, his reaction to the constant state in which he exists all the time.

New Reshimot (spiritual records) are revealed in him each time, and he judges the upper Light, the level of bestowal that is revealed to him. So he is constantly going through inner changes, which means that his evaluation of the attributes such as bestowal, connection, and love, all the attributes that belong to spirituality, to the idea of the Creator, change as well.

This is revealed in a person’s shattered or partly corrected desires (vessels),and hence all the changes take place only internally. Therefore, everything depends on how he corrects his vessels and brings them closer to the Light. Everything depends on the equivalence of form, to the extent that the Reshimot that are constantly revealed match the Light. The only way to make them equivalent to the Light is by the environment that serves as an adapter between the Reshimot that are revealed and the Light.

If a person uses the environment and his Reshimot correctly, he can reach adhesion with the Light very quickly in every state. Then he can feel that his state is good. Of course, he does that not in order to feel good, but in order to resemble the Light and to detach himself from the egoistic accounts, to truly become the one who bestows. Here one ascends the levels of consciousness, of understanding, and of the appreciation of the Light.

We must tie these two sensations together, the two factors that contradict each other, the contradiction that we discover, and it’s only possible when a person transcends himself. On one hand, everything is “against” bestowal, and on the other, everything is “for” it, and a person doesn’t know what to do. This is the world; this is the way a person is internally, so how can we tie these two opposites? It’s impossible unless the third factor comes and decides between them. This requires studying and lots of experience so that a person will understand that this is the only way to advance.

On one hand, he feels absolute helplessness, tension and doesn’t understand how he can come out of this state and be saved from the threat of Pharaoh.”On the other, he understands that there is no room for such states in love and bestowal, where everything has to be nice, good, and perfect!

The world is divided into two armies: The forces of evil, conflict, hate, and separation are confronting the positive, good forces of connection and love, and there is nothing in between. All this is so that the third Participant will come and decide between them. Only the Creator can make peace between the two hostile parties, which is called “My sons have defeated me.” It says: “He who makes peace in Heaven will bring peace unto us.” This is already work in three lines.[105552]From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/13